Justice Department sues Walmart, alleging it helped fuel opioid crisis

WASHINGTON » The Justice Department is suing Walmart, alleging the nation’s largest retailer knowingly filled thousands of problematic prescriptions that helped fuel the opioid crisis.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in U. S. District Court in Delaware contends Walmart failed to properly screen prescriptions, and prioritized speed and profits over patient wellbeing at its 5,000 pharmacies.

“As one of the largest pharmacy chains and wholesale drug distributors in the country, Walmart had the responsibility and the means to help prevent the diversion of prescription opioids,” Jeffrey Bossert Clark, acting assistant attorney general of the civil division, said in a statement.

“Instead, for years, it did the opposite - filling thousands of invalid prescriptions at its pharmacies and failing to report suspicious orders of opioids and other drugs placed by those pharmacies.”

The government is seeking civil penalties that could total billions of dollars, according to the news release.

Walmart called the investigation “tainted” and said in a statement that the Justice Department should focus on “bad doctors” who write prescriptions instead of blaming the pharmacists who fill them.

“This lawsuit invents a legal theory that unlawfully forces pharmacists to come between patients and their doctors, and is riddled with factual inaccuracies and cherrypicked documents taken out of context,” the company said.